1570 / 1601 Ortelius Map of Tartary

A richly-colored example of Ortelius' seminal map of Tartary, this is one of the first maps to focus on the North Pacific. While the map is primarily intended to detail Asia as dominated by the Great Khan, it is also notable for what it shows of America. The map includes what is now the west coast of the United States, northwestern Canada and Alaska, bit was then almost entirely unknown lands. It is the earliest obtainable map to name California. It also displays a strait separating Asia and America - the Strait of Asian - appearing long before the existence of such a strait was proved by discovery. The map is based on a partial conic projection, and depicts from the Black Sea to the Gulf of California, and from the Arctic to southern China, what Europeans then considered the extent of the Tartar Kingdom. In fact, much of the content north of China is mythical or loosely derived from the journals of Marco Polo, the legends of Prester John, and Biblical sources.

A Groundbreaking Map

This is one of the earliest maps to attempt the mapping of northeast Asia: prior maps relied entirely on the information of ancient geographers, whose concrete data seldom reached beyond what is now considered Eastern Europe. Ortelius' map is infused with considerable data from Marco Polo's 13th century voyages, but Ortelius also does much to reconcile the medieval knowledge of Asia with the 16th century revelations of the Western Hemisphere. The Pacific Ocean is optimistically narrow, particularly at the Strait of Asian separating the continents, encouraging the notion of a close connection between the Americas and the treasures of the orient.

Treasure Cities in the Americas

Near America's peninsular California, six of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold are noted: Chicuich, Axa, Tiguas, Totonteas, Chicana, and Coana. The legend of the Seven Cities emerged in Europe long before Columbus, during the Moorish invasion of Spain. It was said that when the Moors invaded Porto in the early 8th century, the city’s seven bishops took all of their wealth and fled to sea. They landed on an island in the Atlantic called 'Antilla.' There, each of the seven bishops established a city. The island of Antilla actually appears on many early portolan charts of the Atlantic, but as navigators explored more and more of that ocean and failed to discover the Antilla, the Seven Cities were relocated to the unexplored American southwest.

Richly Decorative and Evocative

The map is superbly engraved, with an elaborate strapwork-and-floral cartouche. The Pacific Ocean features a flying fish and a sailing ship plying the Strait separating Asia and America (something no European would do for centuries). In the upper right, the Grand Duke of Muscovy sits in a splendid tent; in Central Asia, another tent houses the Great Khan.

A Text-Rich Map

The Asian portion of the map is heavily annotated, revealing much of Ortelius' sources:

In Arctic Russia, beyond 70 degrees north:

The Nephalites are named Neptali after one of the 10 tribes with a Hebrew name, and after the Danites, who by way of punishment were called the Danes of the dark North, and they were on account of the claims of Rachel Balbah placed to the side, in the area of the Hudores or Iehudeores; in the year 476 they were victorious in their battle against Perosa. Others call them incorrectly Euthalites.

In the ocean corresponding to the East Siberian Sea:

The Scythian ocean, according to Pliny, has sweet water, and he also says it contains many islands, as M. Paulus [Marco Polo] also says, but neither of the two tells about their number or location.

Siberia:

Tabor or Tybur, center of the area of the Tartars, where once the Holy Books got lost, yet they are united under one king, who in 1540 first reached France and king Franciscus, and later, at the initiative of Charles the Fifth was burnt at the stake for his heresy, because he had secretly endeavoured to convert Christian kings to the Jewish religion, about which he had spoken with Charles the Fifth.

At the furthest extreme of northeastern Asia:

ARSARETH: Here the ten tribes retreated, and changed from the Tatar or Tartar area to Scythia. Since then they are called Gauths or Gauthens, confirming Gods highest glory, and here lies the splendid kingdom of Cathai.

Turkestan, in Central Asia:

Turkestan. The area from which the 10 tribes as allies living on this side of the mountain range have been called 900 years ago by the Persians to fight the armies of Ismael the Muslim.

In the vicinity of Mongolia or Northern China:

Argon. Once there was in Asia a Christian kingdom, known to Prester John, and D. Thomas founded it [this city] in this place, so that it was in contact with the church of Rome, and was subjected to Rome through Prester John of Africa. Before it was defeated by the Goths, it was known as Crive Romove.

In the Lower-Left Cartouche:

This map contains the area of Tartaria, with the remaining part of East Asia to the Morning Ocean, subject to the great Khan whose might is bounded by the river Ob, Lake Kataia, the Volga, the Caspian Sea, the river Chesel, the mountains of Usson, the area of Tibet, the river Caromora and the Ocean.

Marco Polo's Japan:

The isle of Japan, called Zipangri by Marco Polo of Venice, formerly [called] Chrÿse, once attacked by the great Khan in war, but without success.

Publication History and Census

This map was first issued in 1570 to accompany Ortelius' great Atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, and was one of the first fifty-three maps included in the work. This map appears in four states, of which this is the third. (Over the course of the map's printing history, the hachuring on the coastlines was reworked several times: the long 7-9 mm hachure here correspond with van den Broecke's third state.) The typography of the Latin text on the verso identifies this specific example as belonging to a 1601 edition of the Atlas. Ortelius' masterpiece was successful, and is well represented in institutional collections.